This forum was originally created to share news, examples and information about technology-centric entrepreneurial ventures for my Northeastern University students. Access was limited to those students. Now I have made the blog public (and removed student posts, as those were made under the assumption of a closed readership). I hope you find this useful.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

New technologies create new opportunities, even in the staid
old world of book publishing. The start-up Inkling grew out of the observation
of how clumsy and inefficient it had been to produce a book, even one which was
destined for a digital format. But it has gone further, by easing the way to adding
multimedia to books being produced for the iPad. The founder describes it as an
“infrastructure for producing digital content at scale.” The business model is
to make the software available at no charge but to require the e-book be
available through Inkling’s own online store and to thetake the same 30% that iTunes takes of book
sales. However, the author or publisher is also free to make the book available
elsewhere as well.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The idea for a new media venture -- or any venture--very often grows out of the opportunity noticed in the course of other work. And not every new media start-up these days has to be a dot com. Boston Spirit is a 20,000 circulation magazine--mostly home delivered subscriptions--for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in New England. In an interview in the Boston Globe, David Zimmerman, the straight founder and publisher of Boston Spirit, explains that he got the idea for the magazine when he was director of advertising for travel and wedding magazines. "I got the idea that, boy, if somebody ever did a a magazine like Boston Magazine--only entirely for the gay community--it would seem to be something that would work and be successful."